GRUNT HUNT

DESCRIPTION
The grunt hunt was a local, semi-annual team competition involving the completion of puzzles, brain teasers and board game activities, packaged together as an in-person game event. The puzzle content revolved around a central and unique narrative theme per event, employing a consistent brand and “flavor” distinguishing it from previous and future events. This 5-hour event ran every other season, accommodating up to 10 participating teams of four. Given the lack of an official budget, leaned heavily upon resourcefulness necessitating that materials be created by hand or via available desktop publishing methods.

Careful attention was made to the overall participant user experience. Namely, the conscious awareness of: puzzle difficulty, complexity and variety; game mechanics and structure; and event coordination logistics. Moreover, adding some polish with respect to production and presentation quality as well as an intriguing and engaging plot contributed to inserting no small amount of delight to the gaming experience.

By leveraging comprehensive and intricate planning and coordination, puzzle solutions were designed in such a way that a hierarchical structure would emerge where standard puzzles would feed into metapuzzles, which would, in turn, figure into a larger puzzle governing the entire hunt. Devising the puzzles to work in tandem with one another provided a holistic sense of accomplishment for the participants insomuch that they were given the feeling that their solutions were component pieces to a larger end. Nothing quite like feeling everything falling into place.

Rules development and gameplay innovations were constantly happening, with a lot of effort spent soliciting feedback and creating better methods for the intuitive grasping of both the system and the puzzles. In this way, the game event became more immersive and players didn’t have to be ‘taken out of it’ on a meta-level in order to understand it. One such improvement featured in GH6 came in the form of in-game “items”, metaphor stand-ins for certain team capabilities as well as the very means of gaining access to previously inaccessible activities. Instead of being a mere abstraction of the rules, these items represented concepts in a more familiar, easily grasped fashion.

Moreover, “Challenges” were created in the interest of improving the gameplay experience. Having a handful of board game-type activities which would award such benefits as free answers and hints for puzzle completion provided not only a helpful and enjoyable respite from cognitive meltdown but offered another way for teams to strategize and/or maneuver against each other.

In the interest of encouraging the community which formed around this event, an official website was created as a central repository for all hunt information, past and present. And in response to demand, hunt-branded merchandise (apparel, stickers, etc.) were also created.